Companies developing artificial intelligence world models are attracting significant investment and attention while revealing relatively little about their plans for commercial products. 

Among the leading companies in the sector are AMI Labs, founded by AI researcher Yann LeCun, and World Labs, founded by Fei Fei Li. 

Both companies are exploring technologies designed to help artificial intelligence understand and interact with physical spaces.

World models can potentially be applied across several industries, including robotics, interactive video, manufacturing and autonomous driving. 

The technology is designed to help AI systems understand environments and predict how objects and situations may change, opening possibilities for applications that extend beyond conventional language based artificial intelligence.

AMI Labs has remained particularly cautious about revealing its commercial plans. 

Michael Rabbat, a co founder and vice president of World Models at the company, said the organisation is still focused on research and development and is not yet discussing specific products or timelines. 

World Labs has publicly demonstrated its Marble platform, which can create explorable environments for applications including media production, video games and computer generated imagery.

The secrecy also extends to companies supplying data to the emerging industry. Alex de Vigan, chief executive of data supplier Physicl, said his company knows its data is being used by world model developers but does not always know what the final applications will be. 

The broad range of possible uses means companies may be reluctant to reveal their plans too early, particularly as competitors could quickly pursue similar opportunities once a commercially viable direction becomes clear.

Source: TechCrunch